The Only House Left Standing in Gilchrist, Texas

[spooked]

A Beautiful Home BEFORE Hurricane Ike


The SAME Home, the only one left standing in Gilchrist, Texas AFTER Hurricane Ike

http://www.chron.com/commons/persona.html?newspaperUserId=kelley1&plckUserId=kelley1


Gilchrist, the village that Ike wiped off the Texas map
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/usa/features/article_1431211.php/Gilchrist_the_village_that_Ike_wiped_off_the_Texas_map

"There are no lamp posts, nor house foundations, nor street signs. There are no streets at all, even if a GPS would insist that the avenues called Paisley, Mabry or Van Zant are on the right. Everything is a vacant lot covered in sand, weeds and a lot of water...Alligators are the new bosses in town..."


How many more of these hurricanes can the Gulf Coast endure?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. The Gulf Coast is there because of hurricanes

the people of the Gulf Coast...well, they CAN go somewhere else

[Ganja Ninja]

2. What would the Pat Robertson's and John Hagees of the world

say if it turned out that house was owned by a gay couple?

[ladjf]

3. The engineering of this house should be studied.

[liberal N proud]

10. The architect and builder should be commended

This house should become the model for all houses in hurricane areas.

[ladjf]

12. Exactly. The only hints I saw other than the fact that it was on stilts

were (1) the house was built on a small mound that was higher than the other lots and two (2) the face of the house was oriented to the West.

I've been thinking about houses that would be buoyant in a rise of water. But, that probably wouldn't be feasible to deal with waves. They could have been very effective in the New Orleans type flood.

[LiberalHeart]

15. Remember the famous dome house that waves went over and around? n/t

[ladjf]

17. No. I haven't heard of or seen that house. Where was it located?

[SoCalDem]

21. Here's a pic of one of them

This was the "hurricane proof" house that was built on Pensacola Beach not too long ago. We saw a special on it in Cali a while back on TV. The owner of the house made his money off of develping porcelain veneer teeth. Over the summer, the house is rented out. The house costs around $5,000 a week to stay over the summer!

and another link on them:
http://ceramicadditive.com/domehome2.html

[grannie4peace]

4. i just heard from one of my sisters

in lake jackson. no electricity, no damage to her house, trees down all around, she said her buddha & our dead mother protected her house:):) my baby sister had one tree fall through her roof, but they've got that covered. my brother got flooded but is alive & well. his company got wiped out but they probably have lots of insurance. i don't know about the evil sister -we haven't heard but she has lots of $ and a golden horseshoe up her butt so we figured she's fine :):) i am sooooo very thankful--- now if obama has a good day i'll be so very happy :):) my sis said fema is everywhere & don't let anyone tell you that fema isn't doing their job because they are.....

[HereSince1628]

5. Sad. Very sad

But is it chance? The power of prayer? Or a testament to building to a standard that will take a hurricane? From the distance you can't tell but it doesn't even seem to have lost a majority of shngles from the roof.

[WritersBlock]

6. This is so sad. I downloaded a KMZ file for Google Earth that shows the aftermath.. it's awful.

http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2008/09/aftermath-of-hurricane-ike.html

[uppityperson]

20. I couldn't get it to work on my computer. Said something was missing,

nice to hear it works, will try again today.

[WritersBlock]

22. I was confused at first by the two choices of files...

I think there is one for Google Earth, and one for Google Maps. Maybe that was it?

I downloaded the Google Earth one, then clicked to open it, and it opened in Google Earth.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

7. It looks like a well built house whose elevation was just enough higher to make a difference.

I say that because even the lawn survived and it looks like the water channeled around it.

[KharmaTrain]

8. "The Perfect Storm"

I sure hope the folks in that town got out...looking at that area on Google Earth, it got clobbered with the worst of the storm surge...15-20 feet...then a backwash surge from Galveston Bay...anything that didn't get washed away with the first surge didn't stand a chance against the second.

Wihle things were bad in Galveston, imagine how much worse it would have been without that stormwall.

It's both terrible for those who lost their homes and town, but fascinating at to the awesome power of nature.

[spooked]

11. Tens of thousands still waiting

for food and water...so sad.

[Lancer]

9. If it's one of McCain's houses

he probably doesn't know about it yet. Anyone want to break it to him on your BlackBerry?

[lpbk2713]

13. I'll bet their insurance rates will increase dramatically regardless.

Mine did after the four canes of '04. I didn't have any significant damage, didn't make any claims.

[LiberalHeart]

14. Insurance question re a situation like this....

If your house is the only one last standing and there's no village still existing, does everyone else get to put in an insurance claim but you're poop-outta-luck because you didn't have damage? If so, what's your house worth if there are no services, no neighbors, no village/city left? Or does this homeowner have a claim based just on that: no village here so my house is nowhere.

[rainbow4321]

16. Sad part is, even though it is left standing

It will probably fall under eminent domain of the area/land and it will be totaled anyway..unless they tow the house away somehow.

[ladjf]

18. Whoever was in charge of designing and building that house

deserves a lot of credit.

[texasleo]

19. sad